Plane lands safely without nose gear at New Smyrna airport

The twin-engine Beech touched down on the under-the-wing wheels, then nosed onto the runway, skidding along for about 200 feet before coming to a stop.

MARK I. JOHNSONSTAFF WRITER

A pilot put down his plane Tuesday on a runway at New Smyrna Beach Municipal Airport without its front landing gear.

Airport Manager Rhonda Walker said about 11:45 a.m., Victor Johnson was on approach to the airport when he discovered his aircraft's main landing gear had deployed but its nose gear had not. She said the twin-engine Beech touched down on the under-the-wing wheels, then nosed onto the runway, skidding along for about 200 feet before coming to a stop.

Neither Johnson nor his passenger, who was not identified, were hurt, she said.

"He sort of slid it in," Walker said of the landing.

Walker said the runway was closed for several hours until an investigator from the Federal Aviation Administration arrived to inspect the plane, which is registered to Aeromax LLC in Sanford, and it could be towed away.

Tuesday's hard landing comes less than a week after a plane crash that killed longtime New Smyrna Beach pilot Paul Rooy.

Rooy had just taken off from the municipal airport last Wednesday afternoon when his twin-engine Cessna 337 experienced difficulties.

Rooy only had time for a "Mayday" call before the aircraft hit a tree and some power lines before crashing into a cow pasture west of the airport.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are working to determine what caused that accident.